Not to be confused with Crystal Castles, Crystal Stilts, or Twin Crystals, Long Beach, CA’s Crystal Antlers are set to leave the fair-weathered West Coast for possibly more hot and humid pastures. Following a few solo tour dates in the American Southwest, the chaotic five-piece will hook up with the Fuck Yeah Tour (Matt & Kim, Team Robespierre, The Death Set, Dan Deacon and more) in Tennessee and join the travelling schizo party until it brings havoc to the East Coast in early July.
Upon reaching our muggy coast, Crystal Antlers will play two New York City dates including FRICTION at The Mercury Lounge on July 8th and a loft party on the 12th, along with a balcony party TBA in Philly on July 11th. Expect these guys to bring an epic rock sound with a side of freaky funk and loads of fuzz soaked energy to the stage. Boasting psychedelic organ drones, slicing wiry guitars, throaty vocals, soul-tinged basslines, and a drummer dubbed “Sexual Chocolate” this is one live act not to miss. Grab “Vexation” below and be sure to catch Crystal Antlers as they storm through the U.S. this summer.
GET HYPE!FRICTION kicks off Summer at Music Hall of Williamsburg TOMORROW NIGHT with an incredibly festive lineup featuring Athens, GA’s wildly eclectic collective Dark Meat along with Brooklyn’s avant-garde outfit Ex Models, and in your face rockers The Naked Heroes. Be sure to come out early for this solid bill and take advantage of Music Hall’s happy-hour starting at 6pm!
Imagine the Stooges meeting Crazy Horse with killer marching band horns, wailing gospel backing vocals, ripping Eddie Hazel guitar leads, and Albert Ayler free jazz freakouts. Athens’ DARK MEAT, a 17-piece hippie rock fest featuring double drums, boundless guitars, massive horns, strings, and ensemble voices, has been giving earth-shaking performances all over the south for the last three years. [Insound]. [MP3]:“Freedom Ritual”
This truly is the bastard child of The Velvet Underground circa mid sections of Sister Ray and White Light White Heat and most contemporarily related to the second Liars incarnation. EX MODELS set jaws dropping by reinventing themselves and challenging us again. The peaks reached during this set actually surpassed the standard set by the previous extraordinary Ex Models. See them. [Paul Cox, Artrocker UK]. [MP3]:“White Psychosis”
Influenced by bands like Black Sabbath, The Cramps, James Brown, Led Zeppelin, and The Stooges, Brooklyn’s THE NAKED HEROES play a brand of raw, in-your-face southern rock. [MP3]:“The Goonhand”
Ironically, this mysterious and disturbing video for Dark Meat’s “Dead Man” reminds me of the Jim Jarmusch film of the same name with its high contrast black and white scenes and focus on life’s only certainty and greatest mystery. As the vocals kick in, two members of Dark Meat embrace and sing beneath the splashes of a pouring waterfall, the most beautiful and vivid part of the video. What follows are scenes of the Athens collective singing the chorous and roaming about a forest a la Dead Man, only freakier, raising their hands to the sky and at times obscured by the sun beaming through the trees. The bewildered collective eventually reaches a river at which point the video switches over to color as they each undergo a sort of bizarre baptismal ceremony, facing a fate that we all must eventually undergo.
GET HYPE!FRICTION celebrates Cinco de Mayo with a lineup featuring Bristol, UK’s euphoria-inducing Fuck Buttons, along with Brooklyn noise machine Sightings, and Philadelphia’s unorthodox, polyrhythmic pop outfit Pattern Is Movement. Come out for this solid bill to celebrate Mexico’s initial victory over the French in the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862. I can’t think of a better excuse to drink on a Monday. NYCs Still Hype DJs will be spinning in between sets.
FUCK BUTTONS recipe for sound is one that seems to test the limits of throwing the most twisted ideas and sounds along with the most melodic and beautiful into one big brewing pot—euphoric chimes and pounding tribal rhythms with violent screams and spooky distortions, that sort of thing. [Pop Matters]. [MP3]:“Sweet Love for Planet Earth”
The sound of SIGHTINGS is the sound of civilization in reverse. Its 11-year, six-album career is one long sayonara to the 20th century, a fulfillment of rock and punk’s broken promise to unravel everything—language, shape, unity. Sightings’ songs give impressions not of sweaty stages and cheesy lights but of battlefields erupting and factories collapsing. Inside the wreckage, swirling within the sonic violence, the human presence of drummer Jon Lockie, bassist Richard Hoffman and guitarist Mark Morgan barely registers. [Indy Weekly]. [MP3]:“Debt Depths”
The combination of Thiboldeauxʼs swooning, near-operatic singing style and Wardʼs fierce yet deconstructive drumming,
surrounded by flurries of shimmering keys and sometimes strings, makes PATTERN IS MOVEMENT more unusual than ever. The only band one could rightly compare them to is Radiohead, what with the jaunty song structures and
opaque, repetitive lyrics. [Philly Weekly]. [MP3]:“Right Away”
This list of April favorites stands in stark contrast to what I was listening to last year around this time. If I remember correctly, it was all about The Field, Gui Boratto, Pantha du Prince, and other electronic acts keeping me company as I packed for my move to Philadelphia. A year later and the songs below show a turn toward more organic sounds, mostly psychedelia, folk, and some blues. Maybe it’s the change of scenery, with New York representing the minimal electronic sounds that fit its cold, stark landscape and the fact that Philly feels more in touch with the natural world. This city has its fair share of greenery and I don’t have to climb to my roof or traverse to the bikepath along the Hudson to catch a glimpse of the sun and sky.
FLEET FOXES Fleet Foxes, Subpop; 2008 [MP3]:“White Winter Hymnal”
This record was the perfect listen on Saturday morning as I pulled myself together from the previous night’s haze. I sat on my bed soaking up the sun that poured into the room sipping on a coffee and kicking back some much needed Advil, this, of course, after spacing on Radiohead tickets.
THE WAR ON DRUGS Wagonwheel Blues, Secretly Canadian; 2008 [MP3]:“Taking the Farm”
The War on Drugs were one of the first bands that I was introduced to after moving to the City of Brotherly love. I wasn’t initially thrilled on the first few spins of their Barrel of Batteries EP, as it took a few listens to adjust to Adam Granduciel’s Dylan-esque vocals. Eventually, the band won me over and the impressive Wagonwheel Blues further cements them as one of my favorite bands in Philly.
DOMINIQUE LEONE Dominique Leone EP, Feedelity; 2007 [MP3]:“Duyen”
Dominique Leone was the first act to be signed to Strømland Records, the imprint started by the people behind Norway’s Smalltown Supersound and Lindstrøm. On his genre spanning self-titled EP, the San Francisco-based Leone pulls together the best of both April’s for me with minimal beats stacked against sunny psychedelic pop, oddball samples, and classical arrangements. Stunning.
THEE OH SEES The Master’s Bedroom Is Worth Spending A Night In, Tomlab; 2008 [MP3]:“Ghost in the Trees”
Another San Francisco-based act, Thee Oh Sees, follow 2007′s Sucks Blood with The Master’s Bedroom Is Worth Spending A Night In. The LP treds somewhere between the band’s supposed goo-rock and garage rock. John Dwyer (Coachwhips) is now supported by a three piece who pack catchy driving melodies, catchy background harmonies, heavy feedback, and pounding drums into this fifteen track LP.
CIRCULATORY SYSTEM TBA; 2008 [MP3]:“Tiny Concerts”
Circulatory System are back with three new songs after a seven year hiatus. No one’s really sure if these hazy, lo-fi, jazz-infused psychedelic numbers are the beginnings of the new record, slated for a fall release. Here’s to hoping.
